Feds extend matching donations to Syria amid news of worsening crisis

A toddler is held up to the camera in this still image taken from video said to be shot in Madaya on January 5, 2016. Warnings of widespread starvation are growing as pro-government forces besiege an opposition-held town in Syria and winter bites, darkening the already bleak outlook for peace talks the United Nations hopes to convene this month. To match MIDEAST-CRISIS/SYRIA-TOWN Handout via Social Media Website

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OTTAWA -- Photographs of starving children in Syrian villages are reminders that the human toll of the civil war in that country still needs to be addressed, the international aid minister and humanitarian agencies said Thursday in urging Canadians to continue to support relief efforts.

To encourage that, the Liberal government will extend to Feb. 29 the deadline for people to donate to overseas Syrian relief and have those dollars matched by the government, International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said.

"I have no doubts Canadians will continue to rise to the occasion and give to those most in need," Bibeau said.

About $12 million has been donated since the previous Conservative government announced the creation of the matching fund in September. That came after three-year-old Alan Kurdi died as his family tried to reach Europe.

By comparison, a matching fund announced for the 2010 earthquake in Haiti raised $220 million.

Aid agencies acknowledged Thursday that the effort to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees in Canada has to some degree hampered efforts to raise money for overseas work. They asked the government late last year to extend the matching funds deadline, saying Canadians needed to be reminded they could also help Syrians abroad.

The influx of refugees to Canada also helps, said Gillian Barth, chief executive officer of CARE Canada. As of Jan. 6, 6,974 Syrians had arrived.

"Now that (Canadians) have a face to put to the conflict, they understand a little bit more," she said. "And now I think the messaging is important to get to them -- you've seen them here, they still have family in Syria, it's important that we help support them because the needs there are tremendous."

Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil in 2011, over 4 million people have fled the country seeking refuge, while the UN estimates over 12 million are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance inside the country.

A U.N. official said Thursday that the Syrian government has agreed to allow humanitarian assistance into three beleaguered villages following reports of deaths from malnutrition in the area.

The aid group Doctors Without Borders said 23 patients have died of starvation since Dec. 1 at a health centre in one of three villages -- including six infants under a year old and five adults over 60.

Two of the villages in question are the adjacent Shiite villages of Foua and Kfarya in the country's north, which have been besieged by anti-government militants for more than a year. The third is the village of Madaya near the border with Lebanon, which has been under siege by government forces since early July.

Photographs showing emaciated children and reported as coming from Madaya spread around the world Thursday.

Aid agencies said access to some parts of Syria has been an issue for some time and they are doing all they can to ensure humanitarian relief quickly gets where it is needed most.

"We're on it," said Hossam Elsharkawi, associate vice president, international operations for the Canadian Red Cross.

"It's horrific those images. I know that no child should have to starve like that, no person, no human being should have to starve like that but this is the ugly reality of the conflict and the world we live in today."